About the People: The Art of Ai Weiwei

Lúa Mayenco Cardenal

“Free speech should be at the foundation of any authentic artistic practice, and in his struggle to bring that basic right to the populace, [Ai Weiwei’s] art truly serves the people.”

With this statement, Ai Weiwei’s editor Lee Ambrozy tries to capture the essence of Ai’s work; however, from my perspective, these words resonate more strongly when discussing specific periods of his career. In one of his first blog posts, Ai Weiwei claims, “[Artists] are not obligated to provide services to anyone (…) The relationship between art and the people is a normal relationship in which neither side serves the other” (p.8). He himself might not believe that serving is in the nature of art; however, art has the potential to serve the audience if the audience is willing to find something of use in it. In Ai Weiwei’s case, overlooking the ideas portrayed in his work is barely an option for the audience. In 1993 he came back to China after spending twelve years in The United States. “The people” his art turned to address became very clear, as well as the “service” his work was able to provide. Disappointed by the inaccessibility of the Chinese government and its detachment from the citizens, Ai Weiwei decided to use all his means to strive for transparency. More specifically, he strived to spread awareness about the need of such a value in Chinese society. Citizens had assumed they had no say in the destiny of their nation and Ai Weiwei offered them the opportunity to reinterpret their personal role in the community. His art “serves the people” because it opens new lines of communication and dares to challenge injustice using the power of its audience. He involves “normal audience members” and makes them part of the creation process. As it was claimed in his documentary Never Sorry, “He puts the idea, others will make it happen.” Perhaps without realizing, Ai Weiwei made serving a central artistic goal of his. He strives to transmit the values he always longed to see in society: non-conformism, persistence and courage.

Fighting for freedom of speech and political transparency became his priority after leaving New York City. The artistic isolation of Chinese contemporary artists he observed upon arriving in Beijing opened his eyes to the cultural and social block suffered by his country. A block produced by the Chinese government and completely assumed by its population. He came back to China to realize that “there are absolutely no art activities. Yes, there are painters, but there are no discussions” (Never Sorry). Ai Weiwei felt the need to shake up this situation. He encouraged the underground Chinese artists to further challenge their circumstances by creating a clandestine series of books: The Black, White and Grey cover books. Through this trilogy he shared some of the most controversial work of different European and American contemporary artists, introducing an entire new source of knowledge into his country. Despite not having an official way of distributing his publications, Ai Weiwei and his collaborators directly approached the museum’s audiences and offered something that couldn’t be found in any Chinese artistic institution. They served them the exciting opportunity to taste provocation, punk culture and disobedience in what was described as an “exhibition in the form of books” (Never Sorry). It became an adventure in which one could experience reality away from the Government’s approval with the only goal of expanding their understanding of the world. Ai Weiwei stated: “what is around us is our bigger inspiration” (Never Sorry). He understood that a narrow view leads to a narrow mind and he offered what he had obtained across the ocean in the most accessible form he knew: art.

His main desire was to see China as a country open to discussion and debate, a country ready to deal with agreement and disagreement. He decided to fight against silence; therefore, he used the voice the art world had already provided him to speak in the name of those who no longer knew how. “He speaks out for the average citizen” (Never Sorry), to then give the individual the chance to join him in his constant questioning. In his 2007 work “Fairytale”, he brought with him one thousand and one Chinese people to Kassel, Germany, to participate in the well-known art exhibition Documenta 12. A big part of this group were farmers and villagers that had never taken a plane or travelled outside of their country. As it was explained by the non-profit organization of Slought, “The extraordinary event of one thousand and oneChinese citizens traveling outside of China, many for the first time, enabled Ai Weiwei and the participants to discuss questions concerning identity, memory, love, dreams and the possibility of cultural dialogue” (www. slought.org). Ai Weiwei gave one thousand and one people an eye-opening experience and put them in the ideal environment to initiate new conversations. Now, if such an event was a piece of art or not, is what is open to discussion.

Ai Weiwei has been described as an art-activist, an artist that exposes the problems of his time directly through his work. Such approach has taken him away from the traditional subjectivism of art. The aggressiveness, clarity and “ugliness” of his pieces have brought audiences to question the line between art and activism. In June of 1989 he endured an eight-day hunger strike after the massacre of Tiananmen Square. This by itself has no artistic connotation, and Ai Weiwei didn’t assume there was such a thing either. If we refer to George Dickie’s theory to define the essential elements of an art work, we would be missing one of the principal three. Yes, Ai Weiwei was already granted the position of artist; yes, almost all his protests had huge exposure; nevertheless, he carefully chose to present this manifestation for general appreciation and not for aesthetic/artistic appreciation. In this case, he is not expecting any emotional or esthetic interpretation. In fact, there is no space for interpretations. He shared his profound disagreement with the events by not eating for eight days. His opinion was shared simply and straightforward. However, Ai Weiwei knows how to bring all these experiences into his artistic production. He uses activism as part of his work to maximize its impact. The hunger strike was a way of protest but, the moment he promulgated it through his blog, along with hundreds of other posts, it became a small piece of a greater work. The blog became his personal emotional canvas. It presented a complete idea: a different and clear perspective of the world. This work, the blog as a whole, has the power to create an emotional impression and, by becoming a publication, it even acquired an aesthetic value.

Ai Weiwei uses art in his activism and activism in his art, making the differentiation between the two almost impossible to make. It must be highlighted that by the time he came back to China and his work became more political, he was already part of what Dickie referred as “the core personnel of the artworld,” what allowed him to automatically categorize his work as artistic if desired. In fact, not only being a well-known artist gave him the freedom to share his work in art institutions and other media reserved for those who belong to the arts world, but also, he could count on the authority of artistic linage. As Dickie well explained, there is a very strong power in tradition and its “proper” transmission. Ai Weiwei was strongly influenced and empowered by his father, who’s poetry “became a tool for ‘inspiring the masses’ to make revolution and to sympathize with the communist cause” (Ai Weiwei’s Blog p.XXV). As his editor explained, the Weiwei name not only carried respect, but also gave Ai confidence, energy and perhaps the “responsibility to address the wrongs of the political party his father once supported” (p.XXV). Being aware of the attention he attracted, Ai Weiwei took advantage of all the exposure and attention to maximize his protests and political actions; nevertheless, very often these would reappear in his art in some way or another. All the information and experiences collected are put in a major frame and taken to another scale in which his overall message acquires the kind of power that only art can achieve. The echo of his statements transcends the actual events and travels beyond borders, awakening ideas and initiating discussions that are no longer grounded on a single date and event. What else could a work of art aim for?

The clearest example would be the already mentioned printed form of Ai Weiwei’s blog. As Walter Benjamin would have defended, the mechanical reproduction of his numerous posts was born as one more attempt to satisfy the contemporary desire of “bringing things ‘closer’ spatially and humanly” (Benjamin p.223). Nonetheless, in this case, it didn’t end up “overcoming the uniqueness” of Ai Weiwei’s blog’s reality; it ended up saving it from its extinction and even elevating it to a higher status. All of a sudden, years of thoughts, pictures, and different writings were condensed in a single book, acquiring a different type of authenticity and authority. The progression and evolution of his ideas was now tangible. By framing this period of Ai’s career, it obtained its own “aura”, essence or mission. Mechanical reproduction actually gave birth to a work of art. A work of art that made visible to many what soon became censored content on the internet.

Ai Weiwei’s art serves the people because it is about the people. Almost without exception, his work doesn’t only portray his inner emotional and intellectual world. He includes other people’s information and experiences to make it truthful and relevant to society. He is not using his art as a way to express himself, but as a way of expression for many. Maybe it doesn’t follow the traditional and “beautiful” canons of art, but “why does the environment need beautification?” (p.8). Art has always served to satisfy human needs that can’t be satisfied any other way; including the raw, outrageous, embarrassing social and political ones. These are also part of our nature, and if we know something about art it is that it relies on what we are.

Works Cited

Benjamin, Walter. Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, New York, Schocken Books, 1969.

Dickie, George. Art and the Aesthetic: An Institutional Analysis. Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1974.

Fairytale Project. Slought. https://slought.org/resources/fairytale_project

Klayman, Alison, director. Ai Weiwei: NEVER SORRY. MPI Home Video, 2012.

Weiwei, Ai. Ai Weiwei's Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006-2009. Translated by Lee Ambrozy, MIT Press, 2011.